What would you plant in here?

[Whattoplant]

We've just built a little edging/border area on the back fence of our garden.

It has a bramley apple, a (struggling) photinia standard, and 2 ceonethus lemon and limes currently.

What would you add? I'd like something quite large/bushy between the two trees I think? Maybe something that will grow up and over the timber?

That’s a pretty narrow bed so I don’t think large and bushy is a great idea.
If you want something climbing (firstly, is it your fence?) then how about an evergreen clematis? Cirrhosa Jingle Bells has lovely deep green leaves all year round, and lovely white flowers in early winter, which are handy for winter bees. You could then plant some Heuchera or something in front of it, maybe ‘fire chief’ or ‘Wild rose’ for a contrast colour.

I do think that border is way too small for what you've already put in. In not many years that fence is going to be threatened.
Any chance of widening the border, moving things away from the fence and closer together? Not sure even with them moved further forward the space justifies more plants?

Thanks for the thoughts, I'll take a look at those suggestions @RealityContinuesToRuinMyLife

@heldinadream the photo probably doesn't show it but it's around 85cm deep so not super skinny and its 4.7 metres wide. The trees have been in for a couple of years now so no chance of moving them and the border posts have been cemented in so it's gotta stay 🤣

If you add straining wires along the fence you can train the bramley apple horizontally across the space as an espalier.
you could grow something low under it, something like mint or calendula would keep bees happy all summer once the apple blossom is over.

Given you’re stuck with the width I would add a tough climber to cover a bit of the fence - one of the more established clematis maybe. And underneath hebes and/or perennial cranesbills. And when bulbs are cheap pop those in all the way along for some good spring colour.

One of the silver or golden eponymous bushes. They grow slowly, add winter interest and you can shape them.
www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/20-best-euonymus-plants/

What direction does it face, and what's the soil like? It's best to make borders at least a metre deep, ideally.

If you just want fence coverage I'd probably go for a jasmine.

@LavenderBlue19 the soil is quite clayey, but the first task before planting anything is to dig out, replace with better quality and soil improver and turn over to mix it all in.

Our garden faces West and this border is along the bottom end of the garden so it gets a good amount of sun daily but also shaded later in the afternoon.

Everything that's planted has had the clay removed in a hole twice the size of the root ball and replaced with organic matter and the most suitable soils.

We're definitely beginners but trying our best haha